regulation

ChatGPT caught regulators by surprise when it set off a new AI race. As companies have rushed to develop and release ever more powerful models, lawmakers and regulators around the world have sought to catch up and rein in development.As governments spin up new AI programs, regulators around the world are urgently trying to hire AI experts. But some of the job ads are raising eyebrows and even chuckles among AI researchers and engineers for offering wages that, amid the current AI boom, look pitiful.The European AI Office,…

Reddit said ahead of its IPO next week that licensing user posts to Google and others for AI projects could bring in $203 million of revenue over the next few years. The community-driven platform was forced to disclose Friday that US regulators already have questions about that new line of business.In a regulatory filing, Reddit said that it received a letter from the US Federal Trade Commision on Thursday asking about “our sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models.”The…

In Tanzania, farmers are using an AI-assisted app that works in their native language of Swahili to detect a devastating cassava disease before it spreads. In South Africa, computer scientists have built machine learning models to analyze the impact of racial segregation in housing. And in Nairobi, Kenya, AI classifies images from thousands of surveillance cameras perched on lampposts in the bustling city’s center. The projected benefit of AI adoption on Africa’s economy is tantalizing. Estimates suggest that four…

It happened, after years of chin-wagging and back-and-forth and bad blood, it finally happened: the compliance date for the Digital Markets Act arrived on March 7th. From here on out, big tech needs to follow the regulations laid out by the EU — and this has the potential to usher in a sea change for the sector. While the rules laid down by the governing body are complex and multifaceted, the overall aim is pretty clear: to increase competition and break the monopoly of tech’s “gatekeepers.”…

Europe changed the rules of the internet this week when the Digital Markets Act took effect, holding the biggest tech companies to tough new standards. Now the world is waiting to see which giant will be first to fall foul of the law. One of the architects of the DMA says Apple is a strong candidate for the first formal investigation, describing the company as “low hanging fruit.”Apple has faced intensifying pressure in recent years from competitors, regulators, and courts in both Europe and the US, over the restrictions…

Citizens of the European Union live in an internet built and ruled by foreign powers. Most people in the EU use an American search engine, shop on an American ecommerce site, thumb American phones, and scroll through American social media feeds.That fact has triggered increasing alarm in the corridors of Brussels, as the EU tries to understand how exactly those companies warp the economy around them. Five years ago, Shoshana Zuboff’s book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism neatly articulated much of lawmakers’ critique of…

Others argue the state’s strategy of paying Bitcoin miners not to mine when the grid is under heavy load is nonsensical. “The most important thing a regulator can do is match assets and liabilities—match supply and demand,” says Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston. With the deterioration of the state’s fleet of fossil fuel plants, he says, allowing large-scale mining facilities to increase demand on the grid can only “exacerbate the situation” and invite further instability.In Texas, claims Hirs, crypto…

Legibility is a useful concept that can explain how market regulations evolve over time through the interplay of market demand for and state supply of regulation. It can explain the puzzling cross-national differences in cryptocurrency regulation. Credit: Jack Seddon/Waseda University and Miles Kellerman/Leiden University Since its introduction, cryptocurrency governance has been one of the most controversial global financial…

Audiologists, like many other professionals in the United States, must be licensed to do their jobs. To illuminate the consequences of occupational licensing, a new database from the West Virginia University Knee Regulatory Research Center breaks down the licensing requirements—fees, exams, education and more—for audiology and 49 other professions, state by state. Credit: WVU Photo/Davidson Chan Audiologists, auctioneers and…

How should we regulate AI? Speakers: Melissa Heikkilä, Senior reporter for AI and Charlotte Jee, News editor There’s little doubt that artificial intelligence will be subject to more regulation in the years ahead. Major tech companies have requested it, and multiple countries and regions are now moving forward with plans to pass new rules governing the technology’s development or use. Broadly speaking, these proposed policies aim to redirect AI toward serving societal goals or address potential biases that put people…